I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for reporting channel quality in a wireless communication system.
II. Background
In a wireless communication system, a transmitter typically processes (e.g., encodes and modulates) traffic data to generate output chips. The transmitter then processes the output chips to generate a radio frequency (RF) signal and transmits the RF signal via a wireless channel. The wireless channel distorts the transmitted RF signal with a channel response and further degrades the RF signal with noise and interference. A receiver receives the transmitted RF signal and processes the received RF signal to obtain samples. The receiver then processes (e.g., demodulates and decodes) the samples to obtain decoded data.
Good performance may be achieved by transmitting data via the wireless channel such that high throughput can be achieved for the data transmission. To facilitate this, the receiver may estimate the quality of the wireless channel and report the channel quality to the transmitter. The transmitter may then adjust its transmission to the receiver based on the reported channel quality in order to improve throughput
The characteristics of the wireless channel may vary over time due to various factors such as fading, multipath, interference, etc. The receiver may periodically report channel quality at a sufficiently fast rate in order to ensure that the transmitter can have up to date channel quality information. However, radio resources are consumed to report the channel quality to the transmitter. There is therefore a need in the art for techniques to efficiently report channel quality in a wireless communication system.